Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-28
MAI. BEN PERLEY POORE
Fer Half q Century a Conspicuous
Figure at the National
Capital.
He Has Met and Known Fifteen Presf
fdents, Commencing With John
Quincy Adams.
Chicago Inter Ocean.


Poore should successfullyemergef from hi!
present dangerous illness, and deeply re
greet if his strength should prove unequa
to the task. Major Poore is the Ocean
of the corps of Washington correspond
ents. For nearly half century ne has
been q conspicuous figure in the report
ers' gallery, and mis- letters from here have
been an epitome of the time. He mas
met and known fifteen Presidents,
beginning with John Quincy
Adams, and running through Van
Buren,, Harrison, Jackson, Polk,
Taylor, Fierce, Buchanan, Lincoln, John
son and Grant, down to Hayes, Garfield,
Arthur and Cleveland. He has seen and
spoken Familiarity with Webster, Clay,
Calhoun, Benton and Marcy, and is a
living link connecting the memory of
their deeds with the achievements OF
Charles Sumner, Hy Wilson, Chandler,
Carpenter, Anthony and the distinguished
senators of later days. In journalism his
experience reaches back to the DAYS when
European intelligence came by sailing
ships, and when the most expeditions
method of collecting news available to
the most enterprising of newspapers was
the pony express. He is an
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF "REMINISCENCES,
and, though many of these have recently
been put in permanent form in the tWo
portiy volumes which have recently is
sued from his pen, it is hoped that he
may live to add more than one appendix
TO that store of gneCdOte and personal
history.
Ben: ParleY PoUre by ancestry, educa-
ton, travel and training was peculiarly
fitted for the position he has so long and
so ably filed. His early travels abroad
(for he was attached to the United States
embassy in Belgium for five years, and
travelled through Greece, Asia Minor,
Palestine, Egypt, as well as the leading
countries of Europe, gave a bent to his
whole career.
a visit to Sir Walter Scott at Ahotts-
ford inspired him with that taste for
forestry for which he was afterwards
conspicuous, and suggested to him the
idea of collecting the antiquities of his
own country which has resulted in max
ing his New England home an Indian
Hill, near Newburyport, Mass, the most
interesting colonial homestead in this
country.
INDIAN HILL FARM.
ancestors, John Poore, an English yeo-
man, 257 years ago. As its name indi-
Gates, the title was derived from the
Indians. The land was decided to him in
compensation for the killing of his oxen
and the burning of his wagon by Indian
depredators, and the curiously worded
document, signed by the Indian chiefs,
is still preserved by Msjor
Poore. In its construction the house was
designed to serve as q fort as well as
residence. 1t was originally q long, rec
taDgular stone building, with round
stone tower al each end in which the VIC
men and children could take refuge when
Indian signs were seen. These towers
were fire and OW-proOf, and stand to-
day as firmly as when first built. The
house has been enlarged at different
times by the seven generations of Poores
to whom it has descended, but oy
fer the most interesting addition has
been made by its present owner, for the
suitable preservation of his collection of
antiquities. 1t now presents a semi-Cir-
cular gsbled front, over 100 feet in eX-
tent, overgrown with clematis, honey
suckles, and roses, through which the
old-faShioned diamond paned windows
quantity CLEAN, and here and there
antlers of elk or moose or deer project.
Spread in front of the mansion is a
spacious and beautiful lawn, shaded By
stately elmS, and winding round the hill
are four miles of grassy terraced drives.
An ancient hag-paved porch gives access
to the entrance hall, which extends
through the entire house, and is crowned
by dome of stained glass, through
which the light falls upon suits OF ancient
armor and q collection Of medieval arms
and a drum which beat at Bunker Hill,
A gallery containing the family portraits
runs around the second story and gives
access to the chambers. The chandelier
is the same that hung in independence
Hall when the Declaration of Independ-
ence was signed, and the tall old hall
clock has licked the time and registered
the days and weeks and months and the
moons changes for 200 years.
Every room in the house has its historic
relics, but this is especially the case with
the wing which has been added by Major
Poore himself. This consists of an entry,
q "foreroom" as the parlor was called in
Continental times, a kitchen and sink
room, and bedroom, wholly constructed
of psrts of Old houses of historic interest.
The supporting columns of the porch lead
INK lAbO IAAS SsoINNA WIN 4NAh1SAAy viz
pillars OF the old Province House of Bos-
ton, the residence of the crown COVER !
nors Of Massachusetts, which has been |
immortalized by Hawthorne in "Twice
Told Tales" Between those pillars
the governors stood to read the |
royal proclamations to the people. |
Some of the panels of the wood |
work of the wing are also from the same
historic building, while others formed part |
of the Dearborn house at Roxburv. The
carved marble mantle in the foreroom isl
from the Peter Stuyvesant hotse, the |
home of the last Dutch Governof of NeY1
York, and the firsback, made at the time |
of Wolfe's expedition against Quebec, |
displays his portrait. The panels over
the mantel are from Edward Everett's /
house in Boston. In the kitchen thea
huge open fireplace with its pot hooks,
the hour glass; the dresser, with its BUR
nished pewter platters, its cider sndugs
and the copper warming pan for the beds
all belong to revolutionary times, whilst
the china which fills The corner cupboard
has been in the Poore family since before
that time. The stairs which lead up
to the bedroom are from the Tracy house
OF Newburyport, in which both Washing
ton and Lafayette were entertained, and
the panelllng is from the Hancock house
of Boston, the residence Of Massa-